Chicago Internet Marketing

Brent D. Payne, one of the leading experts in search engine optimization, is joining 435 Digital as our SEO and Social Media Director, effective today.

435 Digital is a digital marketing group that specializes in SEO, social media, web design and development, and customized training sessions. Brent’s expertise and decade of experience in digital marketing will be a great asset to the team.

A sought-after speaker, Brent has presented at search industry conferences in New York, London, Amsterdam, Sydney and Hong Kong–and that’s all in the last year.

As the SEO Director for Tribune Co,, he developed an SEO strategy that united the 70 websites under the Tribune umbrella. Those sites include the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, as well as KTLA and WGN TV. Under Brent’s three-year tenure, traffic from search engines to Tribune sites has tripled from half a million visits to 1.5 million visits per day.

Brent also knows how to use social media to promote a business. Just look at Brent’s Twitter profile, which has 27,568 followers at last count.

In his new role, Brent will design customized SEO and social media strategies for 435 Digital’s clients. He also will be available for speaking and training sessions for companies and businesses of all sizes.

“I am very excited about this opportunity to expand 435 Digital’s client base and help even more websites be successful in both SEO and social media,” Brent says. “We have assembled a great team of very talented people and I’m quite confident our clients are going to have some tremendous success stories. This is going to be a lot of fun!”

Brent also has become a great friend since he joined the Tribune, so that makes his joining the team all the more exciting.

About Bill Adee

As the Vice-President of "Digital Stuff" at Tribune Media Group, Bill oversees the digital strategy for Chicago's leading media brands. Those brands include Chicago Tribune, RedEye, Triblocal, WGN TV, WGN 720 AM, Chicago Magazine, Hoy and ChicagoNow.
Together with Bob McDonald, Bill launched 435 Digital in July 2010. Bill has extensive experience launching successful media start-ups, including ChicagoShopping.com, ChicagoNow.com and ChicagoBreakingNews.com.
He is also a leader in the social media space. @ColonelTribune, an avatar Bill helped create, has more than 800,000 followers.
Before joining the digital side, Bill was the sports editor at the Chicago Tribune and at the Chicago Sun-Times.

LOL. Is this like Blue Lynx Media? Where Trib cherry picks people from the ranks to do the same job, under the guise of providing said work to “clients” who are almost entirely made up of Trib properties? LOL! Who goes to a newspaper company for fresh ideas? Col Tribune was the best thing you’ve come up with and that was years ago! Nice try kids.

http://www.BrentDPayne.com BrentDPayne

You are right about cherry picking. We have an awesome team here at 435 Digital. As for ‘real clients’ we have real clients that are outside of the Tribune umbrella and the list is growing quickly.

P.S. Yes, @ColonelTribune rocks!!

http://www.twitter.com/goatking An P

Great work, Brent!

http://flavors.me/danielhonigman Daniel Honigman

Congrats on the new gig, Brent. Are you moving on from your role over in TI?

Darko: Thanks for the kind words on Colonel Tribune!

http://flavors.me/danielhonigman Daniel Honigman

By the way, Bill, congrats on the hire!

http://www.twitter.com/kristy Kristy

Congratulations Brent!! More importantly congratulations to the 435 team for snapping up one of the smartest people I know in this space!! Kudos!

http://searchmarketingwisdom.com Alan Bleiweiss

Anyone who doesn’t see where 345 is moving to become a big player in the industry that will acquire major clients is really not seeing the whole picture. I think it’s a brilliant move. Brent brings a tremendous amount of knowledge, passion and skill that a lot of companies are going to want to tap.

http://searchmarketingwisdom.com Alan Bleiweiss

LOL yeah uh, 435 #IKnewThat

http://www.ghipgroup.com Gloria Irwin

Great strategy and appointment. Congrats to you Mr. Payne!

http://www.BaldSEO.com/ BrentDPayne

Thanks everyone for the congratulations! It’s only been a few weeks now, but I’m really, really loving the new role.